Torture boss goes on trial for genocide

Cambodia  A notorious torture center boss went before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal today for its first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.

Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal. Testimony was expected to begin only in late March.

Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison.